First, it confirms for me, yet again, that opposition to the War on Drugs and advocacy for the legalization of marijuana are A Good Thing[tm]. Indeed, knowing what we know about the War on Drugs and its implication in the mass incarceration monstrosity that stalks American life, opposition to the legalization of marijuana marks you as a, how you say, racist tool.
Second, in a kinder and gentler dimension, it reminds me of a great interaction with my mother three weeks before she passed away from a metastasized breast cancer (she had been in remission for four years before it returned.) On hearing from my brother that matters were not looking good for her as far as her treatment was concerned and that the ‘terminal stage’ was possibly around the corner, I had flown back from the US to the Indian Air Force station in Pune, India, where she was receiving treatment. (More precisely, she was being treated at the nearby Military Hospital while staying with my brother on the air force base.) One day, at home, between treatments, I was lying next to her on the bed she was resting on and chatting about sundry topics. At one point, as my mother described some of the pain and nausea that were now her lot, both before and after her chemotherapy treatments, I said to her, “You know mom, marijuana is supposed to be really helpful with that sort of thing. It reduces pain and helps combat nausea too.” My mother looked at me and said, “Have you tried it?” I replied, “Yeah mom, I’ve smoked it a few times.” She then leaned over, poked me in the ribs, and said, with a bit of a twinkle in her eyes, “Hey, we should go to that Osho Ashram [the central ‘offices’ of the organization affiliated with the Indian mystic and teacher Osho, which were located in Pune] and pick up some of that charas [hashish] they are always smoking.” We both collapsed in a fit of giggles. Honestly, if I had had the time, I would have scored some for her. In edible form, baked into fritters and consumed with tea, she would probably have been able to enjoy a great snack, and get some relief from her suffering too.
Meanwhile, medical marijuana has become legal in New York state, but unfortunately, it has been introduced with so many restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles that a) many sufferers from uncovered ailments will continue to not find relief and b) the state government will enable its own self-fulfilling prophecy that there is not enough demand for it. The folks in the New York state administration who have dreamed up this scheme stand indicted of the same charge I made above against those who oppose the legalization of marijuana with the additional knock of being indifferent to the sufferings of the sick.
Samir Chopra 